Songs of the Saints: Paul H. Epps
by Wayne S. Walker
Paul H. Epps was born on Mar. 20, 1914, in Booneville, Arkansas. Living in Muskogee, Oklahoma, from 1923 to 1945, he attended West Texas University in Canyon, Texas. His interest in music goes back to his early life when he studied rudiments and harmony in summer singing schools. Also, he graduated from the Hartford School of Music in Arkansas. In addition, he studied voice under W. W. Combs and began teaching singing himself in 1934. In 1937, he married Josephine Rachel Osburn of Muskogee, and they had three sons, Barry, Robert, and Joel. His baptism into Christ took place in November of 1942 at Muskogee.
In 1945, Epps began full-time song-leading work in Waxahachie, Texas. Also that year, he became associated with music normals, including Lloyd Otis Sanderson. For nine years, he labored as a song director with three congregations in Texas, after which he served as a local minister with churches in Texas, at Tenth and Bell in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and Enterprise Boulevard in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Having led singing in numerous gospel meetings alongside many well-known gospel preachers, he taught hundreds of singing schools in various churches and music camps, including the Camp Hensel Music School in Travis Peak, Texas, for over 25 years, as well as the Haskell, Texas, singing school for thirty years.
Epps was the author and composer of over twenty songs. "Jesus Knows and Cares" was one of his first published hymns. Written in 1961 and copyrighted by the Firm Foundation Publishing House, it appeared in Christian Hymns No. 3, compiled for the Gospel Advocate Co. in 1966 by Sanderson. When asked what prompted the theme of the song, Epps replied, "I was just thinking about the Lord 'knowing' and 'loving' us, and how deeply He cares for us....It's just a short step from that concept to the poetic, 'Jesus knows, Jesus cares.'" Since then, this song has appeared in many books published for use among churches of Christ, including the 1971 Songs of the Church edited by Alton H. Howard, the 1978/1983 Church Gospel Songs and Hymns edited by V. E. Howard, the 1978 Hymns of Praise edited by Reuel Lemmons, the 1986 Hymns for Worship edited by Shepard and Stevens, and the 1992 Praise for the Lord edited by John P. Wiegand.
From 1964 to 1967, Epps served as a minister at the Northside Church in Temple, Texas, and later returned to labor with that church from 1982 to 1988. Another of his songs, "God's Mercy and Grace," written in 1971, is also found in several hymnbooks. After living in Temple for nineteen years, he and his wife moved to Lewisville, Texas, in 2001. His death at the age of 88 occurred on June 14, 2002, in a Dallas, Texas, nursing center. A couple of other songs by Epps, which appear in the 1999 Into Our Hands, edited by Leland R. Fleming, include "I'll Keep Traveling the Glory Road," copyrighted in 1936 by Hartford Music Co., and "Jesus My Friend," written in 1980 with his son Barry. Another collaboration of father and son was "Strength Through Adversity" in 1976.
